This invention relates generally to distressed wood products and, more particularly, to machines and processes whereby plank flooring is treated to produce a distressed appearance.
Machines for preparing wood flooring have been in operation for nearly two centuries. In the middle of the last century, planers, jointers and other woodworking machinery was beginning to be more commonly available and, as a result, flooring started to change from rough saw planks to planned, tongue and grooved flooring. In 1828, William Woodworth was issued a patent for a wood planing machine with power feed rollers that also had the capability to tongue and groove the edges of the board. Intentionally, only a limited number of these machines were built, so that the subsequent owners of the patent could charge a royalty for use of the machine. The patent was renewed twice and finally expired in 1865. The demand for planing grew rapidly during this period, with the Whitney company building its first commercial planer in 1860. By the late 1800s to early 1900s, flooring manufacturing equipment had progressed to the point where 2xc2xcxe2x80x3 wide tongue and groove strip flooring was a mass-produced commodity. In homes built during this era, it is much more common to find 2xc2xcxe2x80x3 wide strip flooring of hardwood instead of plank flooring.
Prior to the mid 1800s and during colonial times, random-width, rough-sawn plank floors were installed in homes and used as flooring without being surfaced. After many years, even up to one hundred years later, some of these floors were sanded down to give a flatter smoother floor and stained and finished. This sanding left a rough sawn texture in the xe2x80x9clow spotsxe2x80x9d in the planks while most of the floor was smooth. After staining and finishing these floors were used for many more years (another century in some cases). The floors were subject to boot traffic, high heels, dirt, small stones and other forms of distressing with very little, if any, finish to protect the wood. These years of use produced a floor full of dents, texture from saw marks, and wear that is unique. For those wishing to continue using such authentically distressed material, the plank floor is very carefully preserved by lightly sanding and refinishing, leaving as much of the original character, color, and texture as possible including the dark edges, dents, and black color down in the grain.
There is a growing desire for wood products that have an antique or aged appearance, but being so rare, naturally distressed material tends to be very expensive. The process of distressing and prefinishing solid plank flooring is therefore being used to simulate authentic, random-width plank floors. Various products, including hardwood flooring, are currently being remanufactured to produce an appearance of wood that has been reclaimed or aged.
Two distinct processes are being used to produce this age or distressed appearance. According to one method, reclaimed flooring beams are being taken from older factory floors or older barn beams as these structures are being torn down. These beams, which are typically 4xe2x80x3-10xe2x80x3 thick, are being sawn or split into thinner solid wood blanks and remanufactured through milling. This process is being used to produce xc2xexe2x80x3 solid tongue and groove flooring in widths from 2xc2xcxe2x80x3-20xe2x80x3, as well as thin sawn xe2x80x9cveneer-stylexe2x80x9d sheets which are laminated on to multi-layer plywood substrates. The antique or distressed appearance of floors manufactured from reclaimed lumber is characterized by the very nature of the material resource being used.
According to a different approach, standard manufactured solid wood floors are being artificially xe2x80x9cdistressedxe2x80x9d to simulate a specified appearance. The distressing process is generally carried out through extensive manual labor used to produce the random appearance rather than a predictable xe2x80x9cmachinedxe2x80x9d look. This manual distressing process is accomplished using combinations of hand tools and hand techniques. Known techniques include
hand scraping using various hand drawn scrapers and knives to xe2x80x9cscoopxe2x80x9d out wood fiber;
hand sanding equipment including air powered and belt powered sanders to randomly remove wood fiber;
gouges, chisels, hammers or other tools to produce nicks, cuts, or other marks that simulate the appearance of wear that is evident in an old wood floor; and
use of chemicals such as bleach or acids to discolor wood fiber.
The use of machinery to produce the distress effect has been limited to four processes. Wire brushing has been utilized by the Memphis Hardwood Flooring Co. (Memphis, Tenn. 38107) to produce two products called xe2x80x9cCabin Stripxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cWeathered Plank.xe2x80x9d Both of these products are aggressively wire brushed to remove large amounts of wood fiber from the soft grain of oak strip flooring and oak plank flooring.
A process called xe2x80x9cskip sawingxe2x80x9d has also been used to simulate the grooves left by a large saw at the sawmill when a log is milled into rough lumber. According to this process, a percentage of boards to be treated are passed along a fixed saw blade. The saw blade/machinery is placed on a fixed angle and height to allow the blade to remove wood fiber in a circular appearance.
Other processes are being used to produce impressions and indentations. Such a technique being used by the Bruce Hardwood Floors, a division of Armstrong, Addison, Tex. 75001, is using such a process on laminated plank flooring. As a further process, angled milling is being used by Buell Flooring Group (Dallas, Tex. 75223) in their product xe2x80x9cOld Boston Plank.xe2x80x9d
In terms of finish processes for distressed flooring, some companies that offer hand distressed products offer their product already finished. Application of color and finish be these companies is done by hand with color being applied by hand and finish being applied be either hand brushing or air borne spray application. Machine applied finishes are standard-rolled on ultraviolet-cured urethane coatings, a finish that is offered by Bruce on its American Originals and by Buell on its xe2x80x9cOld Boston Plank.xe2x80x9d Memphis Flooring offers a hot wax finish on its Log Cabin Strip and Weathered Plank products. Distressed flooring is also being sold unfinished. In this case, contractor on the job site supplies manual labor and job site finishes to provide a finished surface.
Although machines exist for artificially distressing wood surfaces, such machines are limited in terms of visual effect. U.S. Pat. No. 3,756,295, for example, teaches a device for mechanically creating a xe2x80x9chand hewnxe2x80x9d effect on wood planking. The treated surface is provided with a plurality of arcuately-shaped, randomly spaced indentations resembling the cuts of an adze. The device includes a frame element forming a generally horizontal supporting plane for serially fed planks. Disposed beneath the plane is a plurality of rotatably driven cutters having radially positioned blades which successively contact the undersurface of the plank as it is advanced at a substantially uniform rate to cut the surface thereof. First means are provided to randomly shift the cutters along an axis perpendicular to that of the path of movement of the planks, and second means are provided to simultaneously randomly move the cutting edges of the blades in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the plank to vary the depth of cut. Means are further provided for subsequently sanding the treated surface and for optionally slitting the plank longitudinally.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,987,217 discloses a programmable furniture texturing robotic system. A furniture texturing tool attachable to and detachable from the arm of the robot includes either a furniture chattering tool unit or a furniture distressing multi-tool turret. The furniture chattering tool unit has a circular saw blade which produces surface chatter marks when it is dragged across the surface of a furniture part. The furniture distressing tool unit has a plurality of furniture distressing tools, each of which produce a plurality of furniture distress marks including simulated wood rot, worm holes, hatchet marks, rock marks, wood split marks, crooked vein lines, and cigarette burn marks.
Although existing processes used to artificially distress flooring are in some case automated, the combination of random skip sawing, random worm distressing and xe2x80x9cpebbling,xe2x80x9d wire brush wear-distressing, and a multi-layer color/clear-coat finish have been specifically designed to reproduce the finished appearance of authentic antique solid plank flooring. The need remains, therefore, for apparatus and automated processes to produce a distressed wood plank floor completely and intentionally through mechanical processing.
This invention resides in methods and apparatus for distressing a wooden plank so as to give it an antique aged appearance. The preferred method includes four independent steps. The plank is run through an inventive machine operative to impart a random saw blade distressing on the plank. This step is preferably carried out as a single stream in a machine having a plurality of saw arbors, each driven by its own rotating cam. To impart the most random pattern, each cam preferably has a different shape and rotates at a different speed.
The plank is preferably fed into a roller operative to produce dents and impressions into the plank. This step is preferably carried out in multiple streams using a machine having a large roller or drum with protrusions affixed thereto. The plank is then fed into a profile sander having one or more wire wheels operative to apply a surface texture to the plank, then sanding and smoothing the plank with abrasive wheels. Finally, a surface finish is applied to the plank which simulates an antique wood floor.
In the preferred embodiment, the step of applying a surface finish to the plank includes beveling the edges and ends of the plank. In addition, assuming the plank has areas of hard grain and areas of soft grain, the technique preferably includes the steps of darkening the soft grain while lightening the hard grain to yield an aged appearance.